Senate Passes President Trump’s Budget Bill

What Happened?

After two days of debate, the U.S. Senate voted to pass President Trump’s budget bill, sending the measure back to the House of Representatives due to the changes made in the Senate. Vice-President J.D. Vance cast the tie breaking vote to pass the bill, with three Republicans joining all Democrats in the Senate to vote against the measure. 

President Trump called the passage a ‘great victory’ while Republican Senator Rand Paul said there will come a day when conservatives regret passing the bill. The bill ultimately passed after the Senate had spent forty-eight consecutive hours debating the bill and adding amendments to it.

Why it Matters

The passage of the budget bill is not yet assured, as it must be voted on by the House, but the prospects for passage there are solid. Getting the bill approved by the Senate is a win for the Trump administration, capping a series of wins including several favorable Supreme Court rulings and a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Opponents of the bill argued its passage would increase the federal debt, and the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) agreed. According to the CBO estimates, the bill will add $3.8 trillion to the federal debt over the next ten years and is likely to result in twelve million Americans losing access to health care. 

Proponents of the bill point to tax cuts and significant increases in spending for defense and immigration. The bill contains an additional $160 billion for immigrations custom and enforcement, which is the largest increase in that agency’s history. The bill also contains funding for the ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense plan touted by the Trump Administration as an important part of national defense spending.

The long debate and numerous amendments added to the legislation illustrate how much resistance there was in the Senate, but that resistance was ultimately overcome with new spending. For example, Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski had initially voiced concerns about the bill, but after several amendments to add additional federal projects and spending to Alaska, she voted in favor of passage. 

Whether the U.S. House of Representatives will pass the bill on or before the 4^th of July as President Trump had hoped remains to be seen, but it is at least theoretically possible it could. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, a Republican from Minnesota, said a vote on the bill could be taken in the House as soon as Wednesday.

How it Affects You

The budget bill contains a host of new tax cuts, and according to the language of the legislation those cuts will mostly favor upper-income earners. Immigration enforcement and defense are two of the biggest winners in the new legislation, each gaining substantial amounts of additional funding.